Ultimo

I agree, and I'm not saying they shouldn't be a threat. I'm saying they're overtuned. How hard should they hit? It's hard to say. I'd have to run some tests and see, but I'd start from potentially 50% at most, and work up or down from there, until it seems balanced overall. I mean, it's got to work for all the ATs. But you guys are right, I'm working from a relatively small sample, and AE isn't the same animal. I think I'll try running it again on a few other ATs and see how it feels.

This might be so... but this isn't the only time I've seen this sort of thing. I've struggled a LOT to make decent enemies for my AE missions, and this is the root problem. If I make the enemies durable enough (ie. EB/AV) to have a good fight, they do WAY too much damage to have a good fight. Granted, I haven't encountered many AVs in general, as most of my characters are still in their 20s. But, for all that, my position remains the same. Enemies shouldn't be able to do 100% (or 99.99999%) of a character's health in one attack.

I agree. I understand how it IS, I'm suggesting that it shouldn't BE this way. When I used the Enemies books in Champions, I had to reduce the damage the enemies could do because it made it impossible to fight them. That's what I'm seeing here. The players I had complained that they wanted to fight Doctor Destroyer, at one point. So, I illustrated out he'd been designed. I'll digress a moment to explain how old Champions worked. Characters rolled 6 sided dice for everything. To hit a target, you rolled 3d6 (three six sided dice). There was a bit of math, but generally the average to hit value was 11 or less on three six sided dice. When you hit a target, you rolled damage. The average attack for heroes (at least to start) was around 10-12d6. That is, roll 10 6 sided dice and add up the numbers. on average, you could expect around 35 damage from 10d6. This was STUN damage, which would knock you out. Ranged Killing Attacks worked the same way, but did BODY damage, which was lethal. The average hero would have around 40-50 stun and perhaps 20 body. Doctor Destroyer had a 7d6 RKA. This attack had no range penalties, and he could fire it off indirectly. It had a range of around 1 mile. He also had multiple combat levels to improve his chance to hit, and his Speed was so high that he would act around 3 times before any player would be able to. So, they boarded their ship, and when they were within a mile, he hit it with the equivalent of a tactical nuke. He couldn't miss because of his combat levels, and did so much damage the players couldn't possibly survive. If by some miracle one of them did, he would just target and kill them on his next action. There's no fun there. His damage and abilities were SO far beyond those of the players that it made him useless. I was forced to rebuild the character so they could actually fight him... that meant reducing his DAMAGE, more than anything else. As long as the players were still standing, they could ACT, which was WAY more fun for them. I made him so he still hit HARD, but not SO hard they players couldn't withstand getting hit a couple of times. That's what I'd like to see here. The AVs and even EBs hit too hard. There's just no way for many characters to withstand it. I mean, you're GOING to get hit sometimes. This is especially so now that there's a streakbreaker for NPC attacks. But, I don't see anyone in agreement with me, really. No matter, I don't expect they would change anything anyway.

Yes, the first hit left me with one health. It's essentially the same thing.

I was proactive. I had as much defense as I could get. Regardless, he defeated me in one attack. I don't care if I had NO defense, he shouldn't be able to defeat me in one shot. To me, that's the bad design. I'm not saying it wasn't working as designed/intended. I'm saying that design/intention is bad. Again, you're welcome to disagree with me, it's just my opinion.

I still don't think people are understanding me. I'm not saying my Defender should have been able to tank. That's not his role, that's not what he's built for. However, I also don't think it should be possible for a character to be defeated instantly with no opportunity to react to it. Refer back to my explanation about GMing Champions. It's a poor design if the enemy is able to defeat ANY player character instantly. Will designing an enemy that way make it harder for that enemy to defeat tanks? Of course, but that's why they're TANKS, and they pay for that durability by sacrificing other abilities. I was still in the teleport animation as I said I was. When I said I would teleport in and initiate an attack, that was the PLAN, as I'd been doing throughout the mission. In this case, I didn't have a chance to do it. But again, this specific example isn't the point, it's an example of a general principle. I get that you disagree with me, but that's fine. We can agree to disagree.

Well... yes and no. It's true that the conditions were unusual, but the experience isn't all that unusual, nor does it invalidate my point. I couldn't have moved away. I couldn't use an inspiration. The others couldn't do any healing, there was no TIME. The strategy is one we'd been using throughout the TF (since our Tanker quit). I was still in the teleport animation, then was in the knockdown animation, and then was dead. I had no opportunity to do ANYTHING. He didn't pound on me, he attacked me ONCE and did all my health. Yes, it left 1 hit point, but the effect is the same. As I said, I don't see what more I could have done. The character was running as many defensive powers as was available to him AND supplemented that with inspirations. Even if he had done the 3000 damage you say is more typical, he STILL would have oneshotted me THREE TIMES OVER. That's a lot of overkill. Even if I swallowed a whole tray of orange inspirations, I doubt it would have made a difference. Perhaps I'm not being clear. The issue is that there's no FUN if there's nothing to do. There's no DRAMA if the fight is over instantly. The fun, the drama, the story, is found in the interaction, the back and forth. When Worf fought Gowron, it went back and forth. Each one had the advantage at different points in the fight. Same with Obi-Wan and Vader. Same with Luke and Vader (both times). As far as gameplay is concerned, I don't think it's appropriate or fun for any enemy to be able to instantly defeat a player. But, I feel I'm repeating myself, so I'll let the matter rest. Again, I appreciate the thoughts and insight.

You guys are obviously WAY beyond me as far as the nuts and bolts go... so I'll provide what info I can. I didn't set up the TF, it was a fellow who was doing it for the first time. It's entirely possible he had bad settings. I know for certain, for example, that he had disabled temp powers. When my character was attacked, he was as defensive as I could make him. He was running Combat Jumping, Hover, Maneuvers, Weave, Tough, Steamy Mist and Hurricane, and I'd fired off three medium purples before teleporting in. All are fully slotted with SOs (I tend to emphasize survivability on my characters). After I was hit, I checked the combat log. It said he had a 5% chance to hit, and rolled 3.3. Later, when Countess Crey did the same, it said she had a 7.5% chance to hit and rolled a 3.3. I thought it interesting they were the same number... but other attacks that hit me were not, though all were less than 3. However, all this is a bit beside the point. The main issue I have is that this enemy was able to do enough damage to instantly defeat me, and there isn't ANYTHING I could do about it. When there's nothing the player can do to avoid defeat, there's no game to play, if you take my meaning. Years ago, I used to GM a Champions pen and paper game, and I found I couldn't use any of the various villains in the Villains books, and it was usually because of this exact problem. They were SO overpowered, and capable of SO much damage all at once, that it was impossible to use them as presented in the books without instantly overwhelming the players. That was no fun for anyone, and ruined any kind of dramatic storytelling. So, I went through and revamped them all a bit, reducing their damage output to be similar to what the players were themselves capable of, and increased the total Stun (health) of the main bad guys, so they could stand up to the heroes for a while. This made ALL the difference. You don't want enemies that can oneshot the heroes, because it ruins the drama, ruins the fun. The exception is that it's PART of the story... for example, there's some objective that's boosting the bad guy's power. If you destroy it, he returns to normal... and in such cases, the heroes need to be able to reliably avoid those oneshot attacks. Anything else means there's no game involved. Give the enemy an "I win" button, and there's no point in trying. I don't know if I'm being clear here... I hope you guys understand my point. And, I really appreciate the deeper dive into the mechanics. You guys rock.

I'm finding I'm not all that impressed with the Staff Fighting set. It's not so much the effect of the powers as the ANIMATIONS. They look pretty silly, and the staff looks absurd too, more like a Titan weapon. Come to think of it... maybe THAT is an alternative option... Titan Weapon instead of Staff?

Some good info here, things I wasn't aware of. All I can tell you is what the combat log said, and it said he had a 5.5% chance to hit. Maybe the combat log doesn't take some of these things into account? Either way, my character has just over 1000 health. Even if his attack does 3000 at most, that's STILL three times my maximum health. He does that, there's no way for me to do anything to defend against it. There's no game. I stand by that assertion, that enemies shouldn't be doing SO much damage that you can't stand getting hit even once. My TANKERS would have a hard time withstanding 3000 damage, and would have NO chance of surviving anything like 11k. It remains an issue on the AE too, as it's nearly impossible to make characters who are survivable enough to put up a fight without also being so absurdly damaging that there's no way for the player to put up a fight. But, I've said my bit. I appreciate the thoughtful responses.

I went with the Brute, Staff/Dark. I'll give him Sorcery but I'll have to consider the Epic pools, there's nothing psychic for Brutes.

So, today I did the Manticore task force with a nice group of folks. We went through it pretty well, as having three Storm Defenders (myself included) made the enemies unable to hit us reliably. Very handy. Eventually we came to the final battle, and we started with Hopkins, who is an AV. My usual strategy is to teleport in next to the enemy, Hurricane running, and cast something to attack with, like Freezing Rain. If they're near a corner, I'll position myself so Gale can blow them there, and Hurricane can keep them there. Knowing an AV has very extreme damage, I popped three medium purples before beaming in. He attacked me ONCE and did about 11k damage. I have about 1k health. He did enough damage to oneshot me 11 times over, in one attack. Of course, his next attack did another 800 damage, and I was toast. He had a 5% chance to hit, he hit me twice before I could even react. I rezzed, recovered and toggled up, and he hit again for around 3000 damage. Oneshotted again. Three attacks three hits, 5% chance each time. What luck, you might say. I say EVERY attack I endured in this fight between him and Countess Crey, once she appeared, hit me. They NEVER missed, and almost every attack was enough to oneshot me. So this brings me to the point of my post. Enemy damage at higher ranks (EB and AV) are WAY, WAY, WAY excessive. If there is no way for the player to survive an attack, there's no game. Enemies should never do enough damage to oneshot ANY character, unless it's a telegraphed attack that can be avoided or otherwise mitigated. In the example above, there was nothing I could do to survive the attack. I put as much defense and resistance on the character as I could. Reduced his tohit as much as was possible. I even used Inspirations to make myself as protected as was possible... but it made no difference. Nothing I could do would have allowed me to do anything about that attack... so there was no GAME to play. I said the same thing back in live days, and I've said it here before in reference to my AE characters. It's nearly impossible to make a villain durable enough to challenge many players, especially groups of players, who isn't going to instantly wipe out half the team with one attack. That's a problem I would like to see addressed.

Actually, I'm astonished I didn't think about Sorcery... for a SORCERER. /SmackOnHead.

No, that definitely helps, but that doesn't become available until near the end of the character's progress. I'll pick something from that for certain, but I'm not sure what to do in the meantime.

So, I'm trying to decide how to make a character, but it's a character with a particular theme. He's based on the Sorceror from my Warhammer 40k Chaos Marine army. When I made him in an AE mission, I gave him Staff Fighting and Psychic Blast. Of course, there's no such combination possible for player archetypes... so I'm kind of stuck on what AT and power sets I should give him. My first thought is that he really should have the Staff Fighting set, which limits him to melee archetypes... Scrapper, Brute, Tanker... so I'm not sure it's viable to give him that. I'd prefer to have it, but if someone has an alternative suggestion, I'm open to considering it. Psychic Blast is his "Chaos Sorceror" power, so he needs SOMETHING, though it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be this. Again, I'm open to suggestions. Any thoughts?

Is it possible to change the size of the entry room? The two by two room just doesn't work for me, because you can't center a doorway to the next section. On a related point, is there a way to make a wall with a door in it that you can pass through? I don't care if the door opens or closes, I just want it to block off the corridor and have a more normal sized doorway. Perhaps some kind of panel or something?

I tried this, it seems to have relieved the problem, at least for now.

I've been saying this for quite some time. I've never quite understood anyone's objection to it. I should also say, many of the issues I have with naming characters is that they're ESTABLISHED for me. Many of them were created back in the 70s and 80s when my brother and I made our own comics, so I have an attachment to their names. Without their names, they're just not those characters anymore. I expect others have similar reasons for wanting certain names.

Ok, I'm actually glad to hear it's a problem others have. It tells me it's not my system (necessarily). I'll keep trying to work it out, if I discover a magic fix, I'll be sure to post it here!

So, lately I've been having NOTHING but trouble trying to play the game. I've made a video to show you some of what's going on. I'm not as computer savvy as some, so I have no idea what's causing it. My PC is capable of, and DOES run much newer games (Star Citizen, Red Dead Redemption 2, etc.) at MAXIMUM settings, with no trouble... so I can't fathom why it can't seem to handle City of Heroes. Any thoughts?

Some good ideas here (and some in PMs too), thanks all. I'm still tinkering with it, and some of these names HAVE given me new directions to look.

Yes, I tried that name, but it's taken. I was a little surprised, actually. It's the basis of the character's power, actually. The fluid covers his skin and when struck, acts as armour. Pieces flake off, and are replaced with more fluid.

Well... I came up with Eyeflash. I'm not sure about either of them... what do you guys think? Ferroforce Eyeflash For Eyeflash, I just can't justify the blasts not coming from his eyes, so I went back to the Psionic Blast set. I paired it with Mental Assault, so right now he's Psi/Psi... I'll mix in Fighting and Leadership.

FINALLY got one I think I'm ok with. The strongman I've called "Ferroforce." It's not bad. Not ideal, but not bad. Still working on the other though.

I'm on Excelsior. Ya, I tried every variation of steel I could think of, plus variations of Titanium, Osmium, Molybdenum... I even tried Oobleck, but even that was unavailable. I tried variatons on the word Anvil, as well as various words describing a forge. I've tried literally hundreds of names, but it's just proving impossible to get anything that works in any kind of satisfying way.